After a nothing short of embarrassing performance in Tuesday’s 5-0 home loss to Burnley, MK Dons bounced back and picked up a well-deserved win over a poor Reading side. Despite the statistics suggesting that Brian McDermott’s side dominated the game, they actually offered very little in attack. The few times they did threaten, David Martin—voted Man Of The Match by the sponsors—kept the Dons in it with a number of top saves, most notably keeping out a thunderbolt from Gareth McCleary right at the start of the second half.
The Dons made two changes from the midweek shambles against Burnley. Centre-back Joe Walsh came in for the suspended Antony Kay and Jake Forster-Caskey, who recently re-joined the club on loan from Brighton, replaced Ben Reeves who was dropped to the bench. Samir Carruthers was pushed forward into Reeves’ usual position of attacking midfield, while Forster-Caskey sat alongside Darren Potter in the holding midfield role.
It was a fairly even first half with both sides going close, but ultimately the defences were on top. Reading had the experienced Anton Ferdinand in their back four, as well as Wales international Chris Gunter, who was put through his paces trying to hold of the speedy Josh Murphy. 20-year-old Jake Cooper played at centre-back with Ferdinand, whose experience seemed to rub off on the young defender, as he dealt well with the tireless Nicky Maynard.
It wasn’t just Reading’s defence who were on top though. Jordan Spence had a much better game than his recent performances have shown; Kyle McFadzean was constantly going after every ball; Joe Walsh looked a lot more comfortable than Antony Kay had in his games before suspension; and Dean Lewington once again showed that he can still play at this level, dealing well with the pace and skill of both Gareth McCleary and Danny Williams.
The one defensive lapse from the home side came towards the end of the first half. McCleary broke down the right, and after skipping past challenges from both Murphy and McFadzean he squared it for Matej Vydra, who somehow shot wide from a great position.
Reading offered very little in the second half, but did go close right at the start. The ball bounced kindly for McCleary, and he hit a stinging half volley towards the bottom corner, but Martin leapt across to his left to palm away the drive.
The Dons’ front four were very busy during the second half as well. Samir Carruthers put in another excellent shift in midfield. He was often tracking back to receive the ball, then turning and driving forward to release to either Rob Hall or Murphy on the wings. Although it didn’t come off a lot of the time, it seemed the plan was for the wingers to drive into the box and to the by-line to then cut it back for Maynard, but both Ferdinand and Cooper were well aware of this and got back in time to clear each time.
With time running out, and the usual style not working, MK needed other options. It’s been a long time since Robinson’s side scored from a corner, with the last time being a header from Kyle McFadzean back in January 2015. However, 354 days on from then, the moment came. Forster-Caskey’s delivery caused confusion between Al-Habsi and Ferdinand, and as the ball came down from their joint head and punch, Joe Walsh got up acrobatically to rifle a scissor kick in to the top corner from a tight angle.
The Dons weren’t going to risk letting the lead slip for the sake of more goals and brought on two more defenders, Matthew Upson and Lee Hodson, to see out the game which they did very well.
Those three points move the Dons up one place to 20th, now two clear of the relegation zone. A win next week at bottom side Bolton coupled with a home loss for Fulham against high-flying Hull would see them go up one more place and put Fulham into the relegation battle. It could have been an even better day had Bristol City, the only other side in the bottom five to gain maximum points, not scored a stoppage-time winner against league leaders Middlesbrough.
Next up is another home game, this time in the Emirates FA Cup Third Round replay against Northampton Town. The two sides played out an entertaining 2-2 draw at Sixfields last week. However, this replay comes with the added incentive of knowing that English and European giants Chelsea await the winner in the next round. It would be an amazing tie for both teams.
